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A review by jimmyjamesnickels
Amity by Micol Ostow
2.0
This book irritated me. It's Amityville fan fiction, and it's not particularly good fan fiction at that.
I recently read a criticism of fanfic which applies here. IIRC, this criticism was specifically directed toward the Fifty Shades of Grey series as well as the Mortal Instruments books, the authors of which are well known for their body of work starting off as fan fiction of other established works. The problem with turning fanfic into a "real" book is that fan fiction tends to lack in one very crucial element: World building. There's no need to introduce your reader to Hogwarts in your cool Fred/Draco fic because the reader already has the world established in their mind. Explaining the 'rules' and lore of the universe could actually take away from the fanfic, and it's easier/more fun for the fanfic writer to just build upon what's already there.
That's the problem with this book. The author assumes we already know the Amityville story and does absolutely no world building. And man...that's a bold move, considering the original Amityville Horror was published in 1979. Sure, to be fair there have been a ton of remakes since then and this book does pull pretty hard from the 2005 remake. Still, we're talking about an origin story 35 years old, and at best the world previously built is ten years old. Sure, there's a certain sense in making the assumption that everyone already knows the Amityville story because it's become somewhat legendary. But it's just not done well, but perhaps this Amityville fan fiction's reliance on 'source' material could have been forgiven if it had been a good story. It wasn't.
The book jumps between two perspectives, Gwen who is an ambiguously present day girl (further gripe on this in a moment) and Connor an ambiguously from ten years back boy who both lived in the house. Every once in awhile, we are given the perspective of the house herself, the titular Amity...never mind that Amittyville was the name of the town and if the house in fact had a name, it was "High Hopes". The stories go day by day as the families try to settle into their new home and it gets progressively scarier. In theory. In actuality, it's all pretty ho-hum and a little dull.
First off, I am starting to have zero patience with lazy authors unwilling to acknowledge that we live in a technological society. Sure, you want to keep your book ~timeless~...here's the thing, the average person has been using the internet and cell phones for over ten years now. It's a lazy cop out to act like we're still living in a pre-technological age UNLESS your story is set in that time. I wasn't sure if it was meant to imply that this was retelling of the original DeFeo murders, ergo set in the 60s/70s, or if we were in that murky 80s-90s era where cellphones and internet were uncommon in the average household.
Moving right along, the voice between the two characters was indistinguishable, occasionally making it difficult to tell which character was leading which chapter. Sure, one becomes ~evil~ about 200 pages in, but that makes for a long 200 pages of "Who the eff is narrating at me now?" It seemed pointless to even have two separate narrators if they were going to have what amounted to the same voice.
There's a call out on the cover of my book, comparing this work to Stephen King. The reason for this is because the author takes inspiration from or directly rips off specific iconic scenes from King's body of work such as. Again, keeping with the idea that this is fan fiction, it's bold. Pulling from and/or copying from one of the most famous and influential horror authors, and then having the cojones to put on the cover "Just like Stephen King!" ...the expression about how it's a thin line between brave and stupid definitely comes to mind.
The way I see it, anything compelling or interesting in this book was interesting or compelling the first time someone else did it. There's nothing new here. This ground has all been covered before. I personally don't give it the "Oh, it's just YA! You have to expect YA horror to be tepid!" because that same source material is readily available to people in high school. Who doesn't read Stephen King's early horror in high school?
What I found grudgingly appealing in this book was the author's writing style. It's very poetic, reminiscent of Ellen Hopkins' books. The author is very found of easy word play and alliteration. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's really irritating.
Taken altogether, this is boring fan fiction and that's it.
I recently read a criticism of fanfic which applies here. IIRC, this criticism was specifically directed toward the Fifty Shades of Grey series as well as the Mortal Instruments books, the authors of which are well known for their body of work starting off as fan fiction of other established works. The problem with turning fanfic into a "real" book is that fan fiction tends to lack in one very crucial element: World building. There's no need to introduce your reader to Hogwarts in your cool Fred/Draco fic because the reader already has the world established in their mind. Explaining the 'rules' and lore of the universe could actually take away from the fanfic, and it's easier/more fun for the fanfic writer to just build upon what's already there.
That's the problem with this book. The author assumes we already know the Amityville story and does absolutely no world building. And man...that's a bold move, considering the original Amityville Horror was published in 1979. Sure, to be fair there have been a ton of remakes since then and this book does pull pretty hard from the 2005 remake. Still, we're talking about an origin story 35 years old, and at best the world previously built is ten years old. Sure, there's a certain sense in making the assumption that everyone already knows the Amityville story because it's become somewhat legendary. But it's just not done well, but perhaps this Amityville fan fiction's reliance on 'source' material could have been forgiven if it had been a good story. It wasn't.
The book jumps between two perspectives, Gwen who is an ambiguously present day girl (further gripe on this in a moment) and Connor an ambiguously from ten years back boy who both lived in the house. Every once in awhile, we are given the perspective of the house herself, the titular Amity...never mind that Amittyville was the name of the town and if the house in fact had a name, it was "High Hopes". The stories go day by day as the families try to settle into their new home and it gets progressively scarier. In theory. In actuality, it's all pretty ho-hum and a little dull.
First off, I am starting to have zero patience with lazy authors unwilling to acknowledge that we live in a technological society. Sure, you want to keep your book ~timeless~...here's the thing, the average person has been using the internet and cell phones for over ten years now. It's a lazy cop out to act like we're still living in a pre-technological age UNLESS your story is set in that time. I wasn't sure if it was meant to imply that this was retelling of the original DeFeo murders, ergo set in the 60s/70s, or if we were in that murky 80s-90s era where cellphones and internet were uncommon in the average household.
Moving right along, the voice between the two characters was indistinguishable, occasionally making it difficult to tell which character was leading which chapter. Sure, one becomes ~evil~ about 200 pages in, but that makes for a long 200 pages of "Who the eff is narrating at me now?" It seemed pointless to even have two separate narrators if they were going to have what amounted to the same voice.
There's a call out on the cover of my book, comparing this work to Stephen King. The reason for this is because the author takes inspiration from or directly rips off specific iconic scenes from King's body of work such as
Spoiler
there is a ton inspired by Carrie, but specifically the rain of stones from Carrie and the bloody sink from It.The way I see it, anything compelling or interesting in this book was interesting or compelling the first time someone else did it. There's nothing new here. This ground has all been covered before. I personally don't give it the "Oh, it's just YA! You have to expect YA horror to be tepid!" because that same source material is readily available to people in high school. Who doesn't read Stephen King's early horror in high school?
What I found grudgingly appealing in this book was the author's writing style. It's very poetic, reminiscent of Ellen Hopkins' books. The author is very found of easy word play and alliteration. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's really irritating.
Taken altogether, this is boring fan fiction and that's it.